The Cat
by A Fantasist
Summary: "So… she's not just our cat, is she?" Or: Adam and Blue move into a new apartment and accidentally adopt their neighbor's cat.


**A/N: Based on a prompt I read somewhere a long time ago. Basically, a First Meeting AU where they're all in their early twenties.**

* * *

"Adam, I know I'm the embodiment of feminism and girl power, but not even I, The Great Blue Sargent can hold a couch above my head for this long." Blue said between breaths from the bottom of the stairs.

"Hold on, I just got the door unlocked. Ok, I- AAH!"

"What?! What happened? Are you ok?" Blue shouted, struggling under the weight of her end of the couch, while the other end sat at the top of the steps.

"I'm fine." Adam called from inside their new apartment.

"Well, what happened?" She yelled again.

"There's a cat."

"What?"

"A CAT!" he shouted back.

Huffing with impatience, Blue dropped the couch, and climbed over it to get to their front door. Adam stood there, hand still on the doorknob, staring at a black and white cat sitting on the windowsill, calmly licking its paw without a glance in their direction.

"How did it get in here." Blue whispered.

"The window is open." Adam whispered back.

"I can see that. But we're on the third floor."

They looked at each other, eyes wide, then back to the cat.

"Does the Black-cat superstition apply to calicos?" Adam whispered.

* * *

"Gansey, have you seen Chainsaw?"

"Hmm?"

"Chainsaw. The cat. Dude, are you even awake?" Ronan said, throwing a gluestick at Gansey, who had been staring blearily at the same page for over an hour. It hit him on the forehead and fell onto the open book.

"I haven't slept since Thursday." Gansey finally responded.

"Welcome to the fucking club. We'll get matching t-shirts. Have you seen the cat or not?"

"Uh, no. You know, I haven't seen her since day before yesterday." Gansey said, suddenly much more conscious than before.

"Yeah, that's why I'm worried."

"You think she got out the window again?" There was one broken window in the living-room/cardboard-town/library of their shared apartment, and although Ronan had put duct-tape over it after they originally figuring out that the cat was wandering away, Chainsaw still managed to disappear whenever she wanted to. It's not like she was _their_ cat anyway. It had showed up three weeks after they had moved in and had grown attached to two boys instantly.

"Whatever. She apparently knows how find her way back in. I don't give a shit anyway." Ronan said gruffly, standing up to make coffee.

* * *

"It's like a ghost." Adam said, when Blue got home from work to find the cat curled up on Adam's feet while he studied on the couch, "It just shows up and disappears at random. I think it can walk through walls, too."

Blue, picking the cat up and sitting on Adam's feet herself, settled the cat in her lap and said, "It's a sweet ghost, though. And smart, if it keeps finding it's way in. I think we should came it."

"Like… what? Domino? Patches?" Adam suggests jokingly, " _Gwenllian_?"

"Har. Har. Har." Blue rolls her eyes at the mention of the crazy woman her family had adopted. The cat started purring when Blue smoothed her thumb over a splotch of black under its eye, "I was thinking something cute. Like Casper, or Noah or something."

"Noah? I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure it's a girl?"

"So?" Blue bristled, "Noah is a perfectly good name."

"It is," Adam said hurriedly, raising his hands in surrender, realizing his mistake, "I'm just saying-"

"Adam Parrish, don't you, of all people- don't you dare start forcing social gender normality on a _cat_."

So, Noah it was.

* * *

"What the fuck?" came Ronan's voice from the bathroom. A moment later, he stormed out, holding Chainsaw in the air in front of him.

"Oh there she is." Gansey said, unconcerned.

"Did you do this?" Ronan demands, pointing to the multi-color ribbons braided around the cat's neck.

"No?" Gansey frowns.

"Who the fuck is dressing my cat in this shit?!" Ronan says again.

"Adam!"

"What?"

"Did you cut the matted fur off of Noah?"

"No, I thought we decided to let it grow out?"

"Well…She just showed up and... I'm pretty sure someone cut it."

"Oh my god." Adam says, stepping out of his room.

There's the cat…with a big chunk of fur cut out of it's shoulder.

"Ummm...?" Adam offers

"Right?!" Blue agrees.

"So… she's not just _our_ cat, is she?"

"I don't think so."

* * *

"Maybe we should put a tracking chip on her?" Gansey suggests, on a rare day after Chainsaw had been in their apartment for 38 hours straight. She was currently playing with a glittery toy mouse that she had re-appeared with.

"Hell no." Ronan says immediately.

"Why not?"

"Because you'd probably insist the vet put one on me, too."

"Well…"

"Shut up, Dick."

"Noah's not eating."

"I'm telling you," Adam answers, "she's not a real cat. She's a ghost. She doesn't need to eat."

"Oh, so it's you who's been going through the cat food that I spent half my paycheck on?" Blue jokes, then adds a moment later. "Where are you going? Oh my god, she's leaving! Oh my god! The vent! She goes through the vent in the closet!"

"What?!"

"Give me a flashlight, I can't see which way she went."

"Blue, this isn't a spy movie. You can't climb through the vents." Adam says, bringing her a flashlight anyway.

"But I can still see which direction she's going. Hand me something that can roll."

"Uuh… I think I've got a bouncy-ball in my room?"

"Yeah, go get it. I think it turns and slopes down."

* * *

"Ronan, your cat's back again." Gansey calls, as Chainsaw runs across the room, chasing an unfamiliar bouncy ball. There's no answer. He must be out again. Gansey sighs and goes back to his notebook. There's a knock at the door.

"Hello?" calls a girl's voice. "Do have our cat?"

Gansey stares at the apartment door in shock for a moment, before scrambling over to open it.

"Hi, sorry to bother you. Do you have a black and white cat here?" the girl asks hurriedly, bouncing on her bare toes and peeking around Gansey into the apartment.

"How do you know Chainsaw?" Gansey asks, bewildered. The girl stops bouncing and looks at him for the first time. He's suddenly aware that he's still wearing his glasses, paired nicely with plaid boxers and an orange polo from the day before.

"You named her Chainsaw?" The girl says incredulously. She's fascinating.

"My roommate did." Gansey corrects, before shaking into Richard The Third mode, "I'm sorry, are you saying that this cat," he says, stepping back to let the girl see Chainsaw, "is yours?"

"You mean she's not _yours_?!"

"Well, she just showed up one day and often stays here for undetermined lengths of time."

"That what she does at my place too! Adam thinks she's a ghost. Oh my god." the girl laughed as Chainsaw meowed and walked between them, curling around Gansey's feet, then the girl's. "Did you know she's using the vents?"

"The vents?" Gansey laughed.

"Yeah, we live a floor above you, and she just crawled into the ventilation shaft and made her down here."

"That's crazy!" Gansey laughs again. He stares at the girl, a little awestruck, until she speaks up again.

"Ok, well… I just wanted to see where she was going… I guess, I'll let you be now." She says reluctantly, scratching Chainsaw behind the ear.

"Right… Do you…? Do you want to take her for now?" he asks, unsure what to do.

"No, it's fine." she smiles up at him, and Gansey feels his heart flutter ridiculously, "I'm sure she'll visit soon enough."

And with that, the mysterious girl that shared his cat turned, and bounded up the steps. He waited till he heard a "Oh my god, Adam! She-" and a door close, before closing his own and staring down at Chainsaw.

"What a strange and miraculous creature you are." He whispered fondly, picking the cat up.

* * *

"Oh my god, Adam! She lives downstairs!" Blue says, bursting through the door and slamming it behind her. "She lives a floor below with a preppy guy and his roommate! They named her Chainsaw! _Chainsaw_! What kind of name is that?!"

"Asks the girl named after a primary color, about a cat that _she_ named after a biblical boat-builder."

"Shut it, Parrish. Gosh, he was weird, too. Like… a poster-child for Yale. Like a privileged white boy and an eighty-year-old professor all at once."

"Just your type then." Adam teased.

"Shut up." She said, scowling at him, her face flushing.

"Wait, really?" Adam gasps, catching on.

"Shut up!" Blue repeats, trying not to smile, "He was hot! You'd think so too, if you saw him."

"Well… maybe I will see him. I mean, we do share a cat." Adam laughs.

* * *

"Ronan!" Gansey shouts, the moment Ronan steps into the apartment.

"What the fuck, man?" Ronan mumbles.

"Ronan, this girl came by today and… You're drunk." Gansey says, steadying him before he topples onto the desk.

"No shit." Ronan slurs.

"Well… come on, let's get you to bed." Gansey sighs, "Take your clothes off, you smell like beer."

"At least buy me dinner first." Ronan jokes absurdly as he stumbles out of his boots.

"Yes, yes, I can barely keep my hands off you." Gansey says, playing along, "Go to sleep, Ronan. I'll tell you about Chainsaw's double life in the morning."

But Ronan was already asleep.

* * *

"Why, good morning, Noah." Adam said sleepily, pulling the cat off his face, "Or should I start calling you Chainsaw?"

Noah/Chainsaw meowed at him.

"Yeah, I'll stick with Noah. Come on, I've got to work."

Adam got dressed and had some of the coffee that Blue had made before she left for work an hour earlier. He was about to step out the door when he heard a horrifying _*yack*_ noise. He turned slowly toward the noise to see the cat hunched over, hair on end, with a glob of unknown substance in front of her.

"Oh _no_." Adam said, and then, "Thank god you didn't do that on my face."

He wiped up the mess and wrapped the cat up in a ratty towel, holding a corner of it in front of her face in case she decided to hack anything else up while he walked down the steps.

* * *

Ronan was jolted awake by a loud pounding coming from their front door. He groaned, hoping Gansey was in the living-room/cardboard-town/library in one of his insomnia fits. The noise continued though, and Ronan dragged himself out of bed and staggered to the front door in nothing but his boxers. At this hour, it was either someone to beat him up, someone to sleep with him, or the police. The first two wouldn't care about his state of undress, and if it was the third, it would give him an excuse to go back to his room and potentially crawl out his window.

"Do you want you damn power-tool cat or not?!" an annoyed voice yelled from the other side of the door.

"What the fuck?" Ronan growled, opening the door. A man (a hot man) (not the police) was standing there, holding a wriggling bundle in his arms. The man shoved said bundle into Ronan's chest.

"Here take her. Our cat just threw up on my floor, and I have to be at work ten minutes ago." he turned and hurried down the steps and out of sight.

"What the fuck?" Ronan repeated quietly, looking down at the bundle. Chainsaw looked up at him, then threw up on his bare chest.

* * *

"No, Blue, he didn't look like that." Adam's voice came through the speaker, "I'm telling you, he looked like a damn omen of death."

"Are you sure you only went down one floor? I think a biker dude lives on the bottom floor." Blue said before leaning over the desk at the Vet clinic and saying "Hi, I need medicine for my cat, She's throwing up and shivering."

"I'm sure. It was the right place." Adam assured her through the phone, as the lady behind the desk nods and types something into the computer, "That guy must've been his roommate. He looked like the kind of person to name a cat Chainsaw."

"Strange," the lady in front of Blue said, "We just had someone else come in, saying their cat had the same symptoms."

"Really? What did they look like?" Blue asked, moving the mic away from her mouth.

"Well, he's right there." the woman said, pointing across the room at a tall man, dressed all in black, his dark hair shorn down to a buzz-cut. He was holding a furry, black and white blob, wrapped up in one of Blue's towels

"Adam, I'm gonna call you back. I think I'm about to meet him." Blue hung up the phone and marched over to the 'omen of death'. She stood in front of him, just barely being able to look down at him from his seated position. He raised an eyebrow.

"You got a problem, maggot?" he asked lazily.

"Well, I thought we should discuss Noah's medicine schedule. We wouldn't want to both be giving her medicine twice a day and end up killing our collective pet by unintentional overdose."

"What the fuck kind of name is Noah?" Death scoffed.

"What the fuck kind of name is _Chainsaw_?" she countered with a smirk.

"Touché. I can see why Gansey liked you." he said, handing her the cat.

"Gansey? Is that your roommate's name?" she asked, fondly petting the cat's ears, eliciting a low purr.

"Richard Campbell Gansey the Third." Death recited impressively, "Known fondly by diplomats and politicians everywhere as 'Dick'."

Blue laughed, dragging a sly grin from Death. She held out her hand, "My name's Blue."

"I'm Ronan." Death said, shaking her hand.

* * *

" _Blue_?!" Gansey exclaimed, "Her name is Blue? Why not… why not … Jane or something. Something sensible?"

"I don't know man, ask her. She's just a floor above us. Probably fucking that Adam guy. If you hurry, you could probably join in."

"Honestly, Ronan. Can you not be vulgar for five minutes?"

"Nope."

"... You really think they're together?"

* * *

"Do you really think they're just roommates?"

"Really, Blue?"

"What? I'm just saying. They're both hot. Why not?"

" _We're_ both hot, and _we're_ not together."

"But we _were_!"

"For like, a week, when we were fourteen! That doesn't count."

"... So, you agree that he was hot?"

* * *

"Hey Gansey, the brat wants a play-date." Ronan yelled from the living room.

"What are you talking about?" Gansey asks, shuffling out of his room. He yawns and pours himself a cup of cold coffee.

"Blue. She tied a note to Chainsaw's collar. She wants to know what day works for us to have lunch."

"Oh." Gansey said. Then he added, eyes widening, "Oh!"

"There he is. What day?"

"Um… today? Is that too soon? Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow is sunday." Ronan reminded him.

"Right. So… Today, or Monday. No, I'm meeting Malory. It'll have to be today." Gansey said, sounding like a General telling his troop they're about to die for king and country.

"Gansey, man. Don't sound so fucking delighted."

* * *

"Uh… are you sure you talked to the right guy?" Adam said, handing blue the note he had untied from Noah's collar.

The note was on a neon post-it note, and it said, in bubbly font, simply 'Ummm…? Who are you? And how did you put a note on my cat? Are you the one who put this collar on her?'

"What do they mean 'who are you'? I met them both, just this week." Blue exclaimed, huffing as she climbed off the couch, grabbed Noah, and motioned for Adam to follow her out the door.

She marched down the stairs and knocked loudly on the door, greeted almost immediately by Gansey, who opened it with a million dollar smile and a teal polo shirt.

"Blue! And, you must be Adam! Wonderful to meet you!" He said, reaching out to shake Adam's hand.

"So you do know me. I thought maybe you were experiencing short-term memory loss." Blue said, propping the cat on her hip and waiving the post-it in front of Gansey's face.

"What do you mean?" Gansey took the note, "Ronan!" he yelled over his shoulder, "Did you pretend not to know who Blue was?"

"Why the fuck would I do that?" Ronan asks, coming around the door to lean against the frame. He nods his head toward Blue in acknowledgment, letting his eyes obviously slide over Adam's figure. By the time Ronan's gaze reached his face, Adam was smirking and Ronan's ears were red.

"Well this note says- Well, and it's not your handwriting either…" Gansey continues, ignorant of the mental un-dressing that his best friend is doing. "Are you sure _you_ didn't write this, Jane?"

All three not-Gansey's immediately freeze.

"First of all," Blue begins, passing the cat off to Ronan, who puts her on his shoulder, where she sits contentedly, "Yes. _I am_ sure that I didn't write this. Why would _I_ write this and then ask you if _you_ had written it? Where is the logic in that?! Unless, you are assuming that, because I'm a girl and you're some pompous ass in boat-shoes, that I will automatically throw myself at you. That this ridiculous note is some pathetic excuse for me to come see you in all your Easter Bunny polo-shirt glory."

Gansey's face was filled with horror.

"Second of all," she continued, "Who the _hell_ is Jane?! You're looking at _me_. You seem to be speaking to _me_. And you've already acknowledged, earlier in the conversation, that you know my name is _Blue_. So, again. _Who_ the _hell_ is _Jane_? You'd better hope you've got a hot blond in your apartment, because you do not get to just re-name me just because you don't like my name."

Blue was fuming. Gansey was terrified. Ronan was amused. Adam was slightly worried that Gansey was about to lose the ability to procreate.

"Look, _Blue_ , I didn't mean… I would never… Good Lord… I'm profusely sorry." Gansey struggled.

Adam raised an eyebrow at Ronan, asking is that was the best Gansey could do. Ronan laughed and slapped Gansey on the shoulder, breaking the tension and relieving Gansey of Blue's eye contact.

"Sorry, maggot. He doesn't mean to be a dick. It's in his genes."

Adam laughed, loudly, at this, which surprised Blue. Then she seemed to come to a decision.

"Whatever. I accept your apology." she poked Gansey in the chest, "Just quit being so damn condescending. Anyway. This note. It's not from any of us…"

"Which mean that there's another person sharing our cat." Adam finished, having come to the conclusion before Gansey had opened the door.

* * *

"This is stupid." Ronan mumbles, tying the new note Blue had written ('hi, I think we live in the same building as you, and we're all sharing your cat. If you want to meet for lunch today, we'll be at Nino's at 1:00. p.s. I swear that three of us are not serial killers. I cannot vouch for the fourth, however.') to Noah/Chainsaw's collar.

"No it's not." Adam says, nudging Chainsaw/Noah into the vent of Adam and Blue's apartment.

They had split up, one from each apartment in the other. The plan was that if they put the cat in the vents, it would go to wherever it had gone to get the last note (and also the glittery ball that none of them had given her). If she didn't go to one there, they would at least be able to see which way she went.

Noah/Chainsaw turned to the left and headed down toward Gansey and Blue's post.

"So… Are you-" Ronan begins awkwardly.

"You wanna get coffee sometime?" Adam asks, interrupting him. He looks Ronan in the eye. "Or lunch. Or dinner. Or a movie?"

Ronan stares at him, dumbfounded for a second, "We could go to a Goddamn funeral for all I care." he grinned, "Fuck yes."

Adam laughs again, and Ronan almost misses the cat run past their vent, going up the instead of down.

* * *

"This is stupid." Gansey says, from his spot by the window. "Why didn't we just go to the two other apartments and ask them if they have a cat?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Blue grins, kicking him lightly under the table. Chainsaw/Noah had disappeared, then reappeared with another neon post-it, now saying 'Challenge Accepted. I'm bringing pepper spray for 4th cat-co-owner'.

"Yeah, she likes feeling secretive sometimes." Adam says, taking a sip of soda through his straw, which Ronan finds absolutely _lewd_.

"I grew up in house full of psychics." Blue shrugs, in response to Gansey's questioning look, "They always knew what was going on before I did."

"Oh boy, here we go." Ronan mumbles under his breath.

"What?" Blue asks, already on the defence.

"He has an unhealthy obsession with the supernatural." Ronan says lazily, taking a suggestive drink of his own beverage. Adam stares, but doesn't flinch.

"It's- it's not an-" Gansey sputters, "I just find it very interesting."

This seems to appease Blue, and she casts a glance at Adam, who breaks his gaze at Ronan to give her small smile.

"It's unhealthy." Ronan states again.

"Oh my god." Blue gasps. She looking past them, at the door of the pizzeria. They all turn to look.

There, standing at the entrance, is a boy their age, with neon shirt and spiky hair, holding a blown-up picture of the cat high above his head. They all laugh and wave him over.

"So you are the people who've been spoiling Madonna?" he beams.

"Madonna?" Gansey laughs, "We've been calling her Chainsaw."

"And _we_ ," Blue gestures to Adam and herself, "have been calling her Noah."

* * *

Three weeks later, the cat jumped onto the couch in Blue's apartment. (was it still Adam's, too? Was it partially Gansey's now? It might as well be Henry's as well. No one knew.)

"Oh hey, that's new." Blue laughed, turning the cat's ribbon collar toward Gansey. There a tag on the cat's collar now, saying 'Madonna/Noah/Chainsaw' followed by the address of their apartment building.

* * *

 **A/N: Ok, this is my first TRC fic I've ever written. It started out as a writing exercise, but then I ended up liking it. This is also the first fanfic I've _ever_ published, so... yikes. I am, however, an avid reader of fanfictions. I love reading them, this seemed liked a reasonable first contribution. Hope you liked it. I'd love some feedback.**


End file.
